Free Republic

Most people already know that Ron Paul refused to endorse John McCain in the 2008 general election. While I don’t necessarily agree with that decision, especially from a contender for the GOP nominee, I can certainly understand it. Lord knows I hated every nice thing I had to say about John McCain and wasn’t entirely pleased about pulling the lever for him (which is a dramatic understatement). Most people assume that Paul endorsed Libertarian candidate Bob Barr in 2008, which is partially true. However, that is not the entire story. Paul also endorsed three other candidates. The first of those...

Around the time that President Clinton got into hot water with Monica Lewinsky in 1998, wife Hillary coined the phrase "vast right-wing conspiracy" to denote the supposed nefarious, political forces that were determined to bring her husband down and cause him to leave office. Personally I think Hillary was a bit off in her assessment of Clinton's enemies (personally I think Bill Clinton was his own worse enemy)but 13 years later I think we do have a vast right-wing conspiracy set up to derail the Presidential ambitions of Sarah Palin. In the past I focused more on the Left and...

The Leftwing extremist group called 'The Southern Poverty Law Center' of Montgomery, Alabama has with one stroke of the pen smeared conservatives and Patriots in its new, infamous 'blacklist' it entitles, 'Meet the Patriots.' Among those it includes in the blacklist are some of the most reputable conservative Patriots in America today, such as U.S. Representative Michelle Bachmann (R-MN), federal judge and Fox News legal analyst Andrew Napolitano, U.S. Representative Ron Paul (R-TX), Gun Owners of America (GOA) chief Larry Pratt, Fox News personality Glenn Beck, and U.S. Representative Paul Broun (R-GA), among others.

AlterNet is claiming that it has uncovered a "widespread campaign of censorship" executed by a group of "influential" conservative and right-wing Digg members. The site - which defines itself as a viable "alternative to the commercial media onslaught" - refers to Digg as both a "behemoth" and a "powerhouse." "The [Digg] model [makes] it very susceptible to external gaming whereby users from certain groups attempt to push their viewpoint or articles to the front page to give them traction," claimed senior news editor "Oleoleolson." "But the inverse of this effect is more devastating, as Bury brigades could effectively remove stories...

Former President Bill Clinton warned Friday that the anger some members of the Tea Party movement express about higher taxes and the size of government could feed the same right-wing extremism that led to the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995, which killed 168 people and injured hundreds more. "Before the bombing occurred, there was a sort of fever in America," Clinton said at a symposium commemorating the 15th anniversary of the bombing. "Meanwhile, the fabric of American life had been unraveling. More and more people who had a hard time figuring out where they fit in, it is true that...

Number of "Patriot" Groups, Militias Surges by 244% in Past Year MONTGOMERY, Ala., March 2 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The number of extremist groups in the United States exploded in 2009 as militias and other groups steeped in wild, antigovernment conspiracy theories exploited populist anger across the country and infiltrated the mainstream, according to a report issued today by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). Antigovernment "Patriot" groups – militias and other extremist organizations that see the federal government as their enemy – came roaring back to life over the past year after more than a decade out of the limelight. The...

It is time to give credit where credit is due -- to America's evil geniuses (political division). Even though Karl Rove is not in a position to work his old magic as he once did, other evil geniuses have stepped to the fore to fill the gap. This just goes to show that you can't keep old-fashioned American ingenuity down. We are No. 1 when it comes to evil geniuses who shape public opinion! Hurrah for us! Consider the political situation. We have a still relatively new president, Barack Obama, who took the oath of office on a Bible that...

"Using the controversy over ACORN as a case study, this report illustrates the way the media help set the agenda for public debate, and frame the way that debate is shaped. It describes how 'opinion entrepreneurs' (primarily business and conservative groups and individuals) set the story in motion as early as 2006, how the "conservative echo chamber" orchestrated its anti-ACORN campaign in 2008, how the McCain-Palin campaign picked it up, and how the mainstream media reported these allegations without investigating their truth or falsity. As a result, the relatively little-known community organization became the subject of a major news story...

Wearily familiar as he is with the "vast right-wing conspiracy," Bill Clinton says the network that sought to destroy him and his wife, Hillary, remains malignant as ever, yet lacks the might of a decade ago. "It's not as strong as it was, because America's changed," he told David Gregory on "Meet the Press." "But it's as virulent as it was." Whether Clinton is correct about the current condition of his old adversaries can best be measured by the passage or wreckage of healthcare reform and the outcome of next year's congressional midterm elections -- the same early milestones that...

It was bound to happen. Although some in the liberal media were all too eager to point out instances where some are celebrating President Barack Obama's "epic fail" in the media, it was just a matter of time before conservatives and Republicans got the blame for the President's inability to secure the 2016 Olympics for Chicago. Enter MSNBC's Ed Schultz. During his Oct. 2 MSNBC show, the liberal host launched into a rant blaming the Republican Party and went as far as comparing the party to the anti-American antics put on by Jane Fonda during the Vietnam War.

It was bound to happen.

Roughly equal numbers of Virginians have a positive opinion of two of the country's leading right wing mouthpieces. Rush Limbaugh's at 30% and Glenn Beck's at 28%. For his increasing prominence of late though Beck can't come close to Limbaugh in inspiring liberal hatred. 54% of Virginians have an unfavorable view of Limbaugh to just 37% for Beck. The main reason I asked this poll question was to see how conservatives perceived the two- whether Beck had caught up to Limbaugh in popularity and also who those folks viewed as being the more influential. Their net favorabilities with conservatives are...

I am a proud card-carrying, member of the “vast right-wing conspiracy.” The phrase is back with a vengeance. Whenever Democrats start losing the battle of ideas, it has to be because of a conspiracy. It can’t be because the ideas are old, worn and without substance. In the 24/7, talk radio, blogosphere media world, old and worn is just old and worn, which is why conservative talk radio is commercially viable and liberal talk radio isn’t. Even the ombudsman of The New York Times had to admit they were off their mark in completely missing the Van Jones and ACORN...

In a Meet the Press interview with Bill Clinton on September 27, NBC's David Gregory seemed to assume as accepted fact that the only way to fix healthcare was for Americans to "pay higher taxes." He also asked the former chief executive if the "vast right wing conspiracy" that his wife bemoaned in 1998 was now in high gear attacking President Obama. During the interview, Gregory brought up the "big challenges" that Obama was facing, particularly with the healthcare issue. In his question, though, Gregory did not phrase his healthcare question by using qualifiers like "Obama says," or "Democrats claim."...

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The "vast right-wing conspiracy" that attacked him during his presidency has been weakened, but continues to operate against President Obama, former President Clinton said Sunday. On NBC's "Meet the Press," Clinton was asked about the term his wife Hillary Clinton, now secretary of state, famously coined. "Is it still there?" host David Gregory asked. "Oh, you bet. Sure it is. It's not as strong as it was, because America's changed demographically, but it's as virulent as it was," the former president replied. "I mean, they're saying things about him [Obama] -- you know, it's like when they...

Former President Bill Clinton says the vast right-wing conspiracy still exists and wants President Obama to fail.

WASHINGTON -- Bill Clinton says a vast, right-wing conspiracy that once targeted him is now focusing on President Barack Obama. The ex-president made the comment in a television interview when he was asked about one of the signature moments of the Monica Lewinsky affair over a decade ago. Back then, first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton used the term "vast, right-wing conspiracy" to describe how her husband's political enemies were out to destroy his presidency. Bill Clinton was asked on NBC's "Meet the Press" whether the conspiracy is still there. He replied: "You bet. Sure it is. It's not as strong...

Bill Clinton talks about the vast right wing conspiracy still being active and responds to the possibility of the Republicans crushing the Dems in the mid terms like they did him in 1994...

Bill Clinton says a vast, right-wing conspiracy that once targeted him is now focusing on President Barack Obama.

Glenn Beck's recent successes in getting Van Jones to leave the White House, a member of the National Endowment for the Arts reassigned, and pushing ACORN out of next year's census are more examples that the "right-wing noise machine" is no more. It is now part and parcel of the mainstream media. The convergence between alternative, conservative media and the "mainstream" media has been happening for years. I made the case before that the conservative media can force the press, which is a part of the MSM, to cover stories it may not otherwise give attention. One reader asked for...

A new high-tech Vast Right Wing Conspiracy. Racism. And parents too dumb to raise their children. That was how NBC sought to explain away opposition to Pres. Obama's planned speech to schoolchildren. View video here.

President Obama took to the conservative airwaves Thursday to charge that Republican leaders are engaged in a vast right-wing conspiracy to kill health care reform in order to repeat the 1994 mid-term takeover of Congress, which followed the defeat of President Clinton's reform plan. "I think early on, a decision was made by the Republican leadership that said, 'Look, let's not give him a victory, maybe we can have a replay of 1993, '94, when Clinton came in, he failed on health care and then we won in the mid-term elections and we got the majority. And I think there...

"While it is obvious the progressive blogosphere is superior, we are being out-organized on Twitter," said Gina Cooper, a blogger who helped organize Netroots Nation, an annual gathering of online liberal activists that met last week in Pittsburgh. "There is some catching up to do on the progressive side." Tracy Viselli, who attended Netroots Nation, agreed with Cooper and admitted that liberal bloogers are ceding this valuable territory to conservatives. "Twitter is a news funnel," she said. "Conservatives are very tightly knit and getting their message out very well."

President Obama took to the conservative airwaves Thursday to charge that Republican leaders are engaged in a vast right-wing conspiracy to kill health care reform in order to repeat the 1994 mid-term takeover of Congress, which followed the defeat of President Clinton's reform plan. "I think early on, a decision was made by the Republican leadership that said, 'Look, let's not give him a victory, maybe we can have a replay of 1993, '94, when Clinton came in, he failed on health care and then we won in the mid-term elections and we got the majority. And I think there...

President Obama took to the conservative airwaves Thursday to charge that Republican leaders are engaged in a vast right-wing conspiracy to kill health care reform in order to repeat the 1994 mid-term takeover of Congress, which followed the defeat of President Clinton's reform plan. "I think early on, a decision was made by the Republican leadership that said, 'Look, let's not give him a victory, maybe we can have a replay of 1993, '94, when Clinton came in, he failed on health care and then we won in the mid-term elections and we got the majority. And I think there...

Amid the orchestrated phony protests over President Barack Obama’s health care reform efforts, a new report by the Southern Poverty Law Center, SPLC, documents another threat to the health of the Black community and the nation’s stability: rising racism within right-wing militias. In its report entitled “Return of the Militias,” the Southern Poverty Law Center points out that the militia movement, that faded in the 1990s, is back and that “One big difference from the militia movement of the 1990s is that the face of the federal government — the enemy that almost all parts of the extreme right see...

Remember the vast rightwing conspiracy? It’s ba-a-a-ck, turning its considerable resources to ruining health care reform and wrecking legislation aimed at curbing climate change. Despite the insistence of Republican leaders that the tea-party crowd and the town-hall protestors are merely concerned individuals who have spontaneously made the decision to shout and yell threats at public meetings, the protests are, in fact, prodded by networks of conservative activists. Richard Mellon Scaife, a Pittsburg billionaire who is the financial lifeblood of ultra-conservative activism, is a contributor, according to The Washington Post. That’s not to deny the individual anger or anxiety on display...

MSNBC’s David Shuster and Tamron Hall labeled the circulation of a photo of President Obama...a “right wing smear,” and singled out Fox News and Drudge as culprits. They brought on a Media Matters spokesman, who accused these sites of being motivated by a “racist stereotype of an oversexed black man being a predator.” They let this accusation go unanswered (audio clip from the promos and the segment available here). Shuster and Hall promoted the segment on the Obama picture from the start of the 4 pm Eastern hour of MSNBC’s live coverage. A graphic on-screen at the top of the...

CLEVELAND -- Cuyahoga County Commissioner Jimmy Dimora on Monday accused the U.S. Department of Justice of launching its local public corruption probe two years ago in a conspiracy with Republicans to undermine the Democratic turnout for Barack Obama. • Earlier version of story.Dimora said he and his lawyers will ask the Justice Department and Congress to investigate the motives behind the corruption probe, which became public last July when FBI agents raided the commissioner's home and office and the home and office of political ally Frank Russo, the county auditor. "This is a Republican-driven prosecution," Dimora said during a late-afternoon...

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had successful two-hour surgery today to repair her broken right elbow, her chief of staff said. Mrs Clinton tripped and fell in the State Department's basement on Wednesday ... Mrs Clinton has several foreign trips planned in the coming weeks ...

WASHINGTON – Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton fractured her right elbow during a fall Wednesday, her chief of staff said. Clinton was on her way to the White House when she fell and injured her elbow, chief of staff Cheryl Mills said in a statement released late Wednesday.

WASHINGTON - Secretary of State Clinton was recuperating at home Thursday, figuring out how to send text messages and emails as she nurses a broken right elbow that will require surgery to mend, her spokesman said. "She is at home resting comfortably -- or uncomfortably," said State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley. "She is working from home. She has already taken some calls, and I'm sure learning … how well you can text with one arm in a sling." Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2009/06/18/2009-06-18_hillary_clinton_takes_a_spill_breaks_her_elbow.html#ixzz0IoZGaEOW&C

State Department says Hillary Clinton has fractured her right elbow after a fall on her way to the White House Wednesday afternoon.

The New Republic, continuing the political world’s odd obsession with the Drudge Report, says its editor, Matt Drudge, has disappeared, or gone into seclusion like some latter-day Howard Hughes. I do not think Drudge has disappeared. I think he is dead. Certainly the Drudge Report, which the New Republic claims gets “20 million hits per day” (a meaningless locution as old-fashioned as the Drudge Report itself) has been on automatic pilot for several years. If he is not dead, he is definitely brain dead. There hasn’t been a breaking story on the site in months. Drudge, once one of the...

On the morning of June 7, 2008, Matt Drudge showed up at the National Building Museum in Washington, where Hillary Clinton was scheduled to give her concession speech. At the entrance, Drudge found his host, Tracy Sefl, a Clinton campaign staffer who, the day before, had offered to meet Drudge at the event. Throughout the campaign, Sefl had served as the Clintons' preferred back channel to communicate with the mercurial operator of the Drudge Report. Both sides benefited from the arrangement: The Clinton camp could push favorable items into the news cycle, and Drudge would receive the inevitable traffic boost...

Since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, jazz musician and Web designer Charles Johnson has devoted his blog, Little Green Footballs, to exposing Muslim extremism in and outside the United States. His targets have included the Council on American-Islamic Relations, filmmaker Michael Moore, Reuters, Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), Dan Rather, and the late pro-Palestinian activist Rachel Corrie — who some LGF commenters (not Johnson) call “St. Pancake,” a tribute to the Israeli steamroller that killed her. LGF helped write the lexicon of the self-styled “anti-Jihadist” blogosphere — from “moonbat” (”an unthinking or insane leftist”) to “anti-idiotarian” (”anyone who grasps...

he head of homeland security said Sunday she regrets that some people took offense over a report warning that right-wing extremist groups were trying to recruit disgruntled troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. But Secretary Janet Napolitano added that "a number of groups far too numerous to mention" want to commit domestic terrorism attacks and are looking for new recruits. She told a cable news network the warning report that went out to American law enforcement agencies was consistent with reports that were issued before. "Here is the important point. The report is not saying that veterans are extremists. Far...

A report from Janet Napolitano's Department of Homeland Security is entitled "Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment." The report is "one of the most shoddy pieces of propaganda I'd ever seen out of DHS," writes Michelle Malkin, who deems it a "piece of crap report." The "Key Findings" section of the report opens with these words: "The DHS has NO SPECIFIC INFORMATION that domestic rightwing terrorists are currently planning acts of violence...but the economic downturn and the election of the first African-American president present unique drivers for rightwing radicalization and recruitment." This document...

On April 7, the Department of Homeland Security distributed a counterterrorism assessment to local law-enforcement types entitled, "Right-wing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment." The nine-page paper has many on the right questioning what is going on in Washington. The assessment reads like a sophomore's bad political science essay in, for example, noting that right-wing extremism "may include groups and individuals that are dedicated to a single issue, such as opposition to abortion or immigration." "This is an very unfortunately named document," Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Sara Kudon told me. No lie. The...

Don’t you just love this DHS report on “right winged extremism?” Is this not just grand??!! Another day! Another disgusting attack on Americans! I guess what we are headed for here, according to this report, is a one party system! From the report: “Many rightwing extremists are antagonistic toward the new presidential administration and its perceived stance on a range of issues, including immigration and citizenship, the expansion of social programs to minorities, and restrictions on firearms ownership and use…”Libertas

According to a recent report by your federal government, it is quite likely that our government now considers you or someone you love to be a right-wing extremist and the equivalent of a hate group member: Rightwing extremism in the United States can be broadly divided into those groups, movements, and adherents that are primarily hate-oriented (based on hatred of particular religious, racial or ethnic groups), and those that are mainly antigovernment, rejecting federal authority in favor of state or local authority, or rejecting government authority entirely. It may include groups and individuals that are dedicated to a single issue,...

NEW YORK (AFP) — Critics of President Barack Obama's handling of the economy are planning nationwide "tea parties" Wednesday -- and not for the sake of polite conversation. Coast-to-coast demonstrations against Obama's big-spending economic stimulus package are promised for the day that is also the deadline for filing federal income tax returns. Whether Republicans -- in disarray since losing the presidential election last year -- can deliver is open to question. Pro-Republican organizers say they are plugging into widespread popular anger at Democrat-led Washington.

Playboy Magazine got its undies in a bundle over the nation wide Tea Party protests held last Friday that were inspired by CNBC's Rick Santelli's free market rant of February 19. As Noel Sheppard noted on March 1, the skin mag published a piece claiming that Santelli was part of a vast right-wing conspiracy to protest Obama's socialist policies. It turns out, however, that the story has been proven false and in response Playboy has mysteriously removed the piece that first raised the question of the grand conspiracy. Happily, the facts have won over on Playboy forcing it to pull...

I was interviewed by several journalists last week about Rick Santelli’s Rant — my exact quote was it had a “Faux” feel to it. (I haven’t seen it in print yet) What was so odd about this was that Santelli is usually on the ball; we usually agree more often than we disagree. He’s been responsible for some of the best moments on Squawk Box. But his rant somehow felt wrong. After we’ve pissed through over $7 trillion dollars in Federal bailouts to banks, brokers, automakers, insurers, etc., this was a pittance, the least offensive of all the vast sums...

.."Al Franken was taking on the vast right-wing conspiracy before other people even admitted it existed," she told a crowd of 2,000 supporters on the University of Minnesota campus, urging them to give her rival, Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama, a filibuster-proof margin in the Senate. "Al Franken, with your help, can be our 60th vote."

It could be time to break out those old "Proud Member of the VRWC" coffee mugs collecting dust at the back of your kitchen cabinets. The Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy rides again! Hillary invoked the VRWC yesterday at a campaign event in Minnesota for Al Franken in his race against incumbent Republican Sen. Norm Coleman. David Shuster had the report during MSNBC's 4 PM EDT hour today. View video here.

WASHINGTON – Billionaire Richard Mellon Scaife, formerly No. 1 on Bill Clinton's enemies list as the so-called "marionette" of the "vast right-wing conspiracy," met with the former president for two hours this week, offering to help him with his global initiative. Scaife, who personally funded many of the investigations of the Clinton administration that led to the president's impeachment, last April formerly endorsed Hillary Clinton for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, a daily newspaper he owns. That endorsement came just before the Pennsylvania primary, which Hillary Clinton won, and just after Scaife met with her. Scaife's...

Bill Clinton met Wednesday for more than an hour with Richard Mellon Scaife — the principal financier of conservative research and articles about Clinton scandals — at the former president’s Harlem Global Initiative offices, according sources familiar with the meeting. Scaife requested the meeting to discuss Clinton’s global initiative work and possible ways the two might work together on charitable and humanitarian projects. Still, the meeting came as a shock to Clinton loyalists there to witness Scaife’s arrival. “I must say, it was amazing to be in the office and see the vast right wing conspiracy walk right past you...

The rarely-seen Matt Drudge, under the supervision of of Clinton consultant Tracy Sefl, is here for the end. Clinton's aides blame him, as much as anyone else, for her loss. He wouldn't, however, participate in Jonathan Martin's and my attempt at mindreading.

Floyd Brown and David Bossie have spent a good part of their political careers making life miserable for Bill and Hillary Clinton. Unlike Richard Mellon Scaife, the billionaire financier who was unremitting in his efforts to take the Clintons down during the latter part of the twentieth century and whose newspaper endorsed Senator Hillary Clinton prior to the Pennsylvania primary, neither Brown nor Bossie have had a pro-Hillary conversion. These days, however, Brown's new organization, The National Campaign Fund -- which launched a new website "ExposeObama.com" -- and Bossie's Citizens United have added Sen. Barack Obama to the mix. Brown...